Hook-and-eye-sewing machine.



W. A. GOURTLAND. HOOK AND EYE SEWING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED 33.14,1908. RENEWED APR. 5; 1910.

Patented Nov. 1,1910.

w. A. COURTLAND. v HOOK AND-EYE SEWING MAGHINE. APPLIUKTION FILED FEB.14, 1908. RENEWED APR. 5, 1910.

Patented Nov. 1, 1910. F iB E BBT8'SHEET 2.

WILLIAM A. COURTLAND, OF BROOKLYN, NEW

MENTS, TO THE CONNECTICUT HOOK AND EYE YORK, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN-COMPANY, or WATERBURY, con- NECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

HOOK-AND-EYE-SEWING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 1, 1910.

Application filed February 14, 1908, Serial N 0. 415,960, Renewed April5, 1910. Serial No. 553,556.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IVILLIAM A. COURT- LAND, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing in Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hook and Eye-Sewing Machines, of which the following is a specification. D

My invention relates in general to an 1mproveinent of the mechanism bymeans of which the hooks and eyes are engaged in the kind of machinesabove referred to, an example of which machines is shown, for instance,in the Patent No. 710,517 to George Rowbottom.

I11 the accompanying drawings I have illustrated my invention as appliedto a machine of the kind above referred to, on which application forLetters Patent was made by Paul Ferdinand Kleinert, Serial No. 381,088.I have shown my improved mechanism particularly adapted in its form tofit the machine described in this application, but it is obvious that mydevice may be applied to the same advantage in any similar kind ofmachine.

The particular purpose of my invention is to engage an eye by aso-called hump hook, with the hook at the time of engagement in itsfinished state. Heretofore it has been preferred, in order to engage aneye by a hump hook, to have the hook at the time of engagement inunfinished state, 2'. e. the bill of the hook slightly bent upward andnot in parallel to the body of the hook as is the normal shape of thesehooks, in order to cause the eye to easily slip without resistance tothe back of the hook. To

. have the hook engage the eye in this unfinished state has beenpreferred, since heretofore difficulty has been incurred in holding theeye tight enough in its feeding device to pull itpast the hump of thehook in finished form. Therefore, it was also usual, heretofore, toembody an additional mechanism in the hook and eye sewing machine tobend the bills of the hooks down in par allel with their bodies afterthe engagement with the eye. Owing to my improved device, this hookbending mechanism above referred to will be entirely omitted, the eyebeing held positively fast in its hook engaging position at the momentit engages with the hook and slips past its hump, while the tighthold'of the eye feeding mechanism on the eye is released as soon as theeye has slipped past the hump, so that the hook can then pull the eyefrom its feeding mechanism.

I have illustrated in the drawings two modifications. In onemodification the means for holding the eye tight in its engagingposition while the hook passes with its hump, are controlled by theeye-feeding means; while in the second modification the means forholding tight the eye are controlled by the passing hook, z. e. as longas the hook is in its engaging position tending to pull the hump pastthe eye, it looks automatically the means for holding tight the eye andunlocks these means only after the hump has passed the eye.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a part of an eye feedersimilar to that shown in the patent above referred to, shown partly insection; Figs. 2 and 3 are front elevations thereof, showing the pusherfinger for the eye in different positions; Fig. 4 s a plan View of thefront part of a hook gripper as employed, for instance, in the patentabove referred to for transferring the hook from the hook slide to thecards, causing on its way to the cards the hook to engage the eye; F ig.5 is a detail front view of the main body of the eye feeder shown inFig. 1 in side View and also showing the eye pusher finger withdrawn;Fig. 6 is a front view of the gripper shown in is a side elevation of amodification of the form shown in Fig. 1 also partly in crosssection;Figs. 8 and 9 are front elevations thereof; Fig. 10 is a detail view ofthe frame shown in F ig. 7 holding the eye on its seat while engaged bythe hook; and Fig. 11 is a detail view of thelatch operated by the hookwhile engaging the eye to hold it tight in its seat.

In Figs. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 and 9, 65 is the main bo .y or bar of the eyefeeder, which is suitably fastened to the machine frame (not shown here)and extends downwardly, approaching sewing table 5 (Figs. 1 and 7) at asuitable angle shown in these figures. The upper side of the end of bar65 is provided with a recess 38, adapted to receive a slide 70, as shownin detail in ther provided at its end with a slot 39, shown in Fig. 5 inplan view and in Figs. 1 and 7 Fig. 4:; Fig. 7.

Fig. 5, and is fur-.

in side view. The recess 38 which receives slide 70, is covered by plate68 provided with a slot 71 through which a pin 69, fastened on slide 70,protrudes. Side arm 76 of plate 68 carries pivoted to it bell crank 67,one arm of which engages pin 69 of slide 70, while the other arm ispivoted to a slide 66, moving transversely to bar 65 in guide 72. Slide66 is suitably connected to the mecha nism operating the eye feed at theproper time, which mechanism is not shown in the drawings, since it doesnot pertain to the subject matter of my invention. Plate 68 coversrecess 38 only partially, 2'. 6. far enough to form a guide for slide70, leaving the lower portion of recess 38 toward the end of bar 65open, so that the eyes 10 which have straddled down on the bead 64 ofeye rail 63 (described in the patent above re ferred to) may enterrecess 38 in front of slide 70, guided by the end of eye rail 63, whichextends close to recess 38 (Fig. 7). Recess 38 is deep enough to holdjust one eye, and slide 7 0 is suitably shaped at its end to fit thesewing eyes of the eye, as shown in Figs. 2, 5 and 8. When slide is withdrawn, as shown in Figs. 2 and 8, an eye will drop from the rail 63(Fig. 7) into recess 38 and rest at the bottom 77 of it until slide 70is operated atthe proper time to push the eye to its seat 11 at the endof the recess. This position of the slide and the eye is shown in Figs.5 and 9. When the eye is in this latter position, a hook delivered bythe hook chute 55 (Fig. 7), of a similar form to that described in thepatent above referred to, will be taken along (in the manner alsodescribed'in said patent) by gripper arms 111 and 112 (Figs. 4: and 7)and fed forward in the direction of the arrow shown in Figs. 1, 4: and7, the hook being in such a position that, when passing with its billthrough slot 39, at the end of bar 65, it will engage the eye as shownin Fig. 1. WVhen the hook 8, thus fed, is moved further in the directionof the arrow it will pull the eye 10 (Fig. 1) from its seat and carry italong.

In case of the so called hump hooks, the yielding hump 9 of which formsmeans for preventing the eye slipping from the bill when used ongarments, the hump 9 would prevent the eye from slipping back past thehump into its place where it should be when the pair of hooks and eyesis sewed onto the card, since the hold which the eye 10 has on its seat11 when engaged by the hook is not strong enough to cause the hook topull the hump past the eye withoutlifting it prematurely from its seat.

Various means have been provided to hold an eye in this kind of deviceon its seat. These means, however, are not positive enough to withstandthe pull of the hook to get the eye past the hump. I have now providedpositive means which normally will allow an eye to rest loosely in itsseat, so that it can be pulled easily therefrom when engaged by a hook;which means, however, will hold the eye positively tight to its seatduring the engaging operation with the hook and in particular during thetime the eye slips past the hump, and which will release the positivehold on the eye as soon as it has been fully engaged by the hook. Forthis purposeI have provided near the end of bar 65 a shield 12, which ispivoted to the bar at 13 (Figs. 1, 2 and 3). The main portion of thisshield extends transversely to recess 38 of bar 65, thus covering partof the lower end of this recess, leaving however, the seat 11 of the eyeuncovered (as shown in Figs. 2 and 3), so that if an eye 10 has beendelivered to this seat (Fig. 3) suflicient space will be left for thebill of the hook to slide through the eye. It will be seen from Fig. 1that shield 12 is pivoted so to bar 65 that when an eye is pulled by thehook from its seat after it has been fully e11- gaged, shield 12 willtend to rock upward.

In order to prevent the upward rocking of shield 12, and thus theremoving of the eye from its seat when the hump 9 of the hook is aboutto pass the eye, the following means are provided: Onslide 70 isfastened the U-shaped fork 14, the two prongs of which are of suitablelength so as to leave shield 12 uncovered when slide 70 is withdrawn thefarthest (Fig. 2), but to cover shield 12 and prevent it from rockingupward when slide 70 has been pushed forward to locate an eye in itsseat. If shield 12 is thus covered by the two prongs of fork l-l, hook 8in engaging the eye and pulling the hump past the eye will be unable tolift the eye from its seat. The machine in which this device is embodiedis timed so that the prongs of fork 1 1 will cover shield 12 at themoment the bill enters the eye and will be removed from it as soon asthe hump has been pulled past the eye, so that shield 12 is again freeto rock upward, and so that the hook can pull the eye, which is nowfully engaged, from its seat. At the moment when the eye is pulled pastthe hump, the latter will yield in a downward direction and will thusprotrude at the under side of the hook body. In order to allow theyielding of the hump in the downward direction the gripper arms 111 and112 are so formed, to leave when gripping the hook, a slot 15 between(Figs. 4 and 6), into which the hump protrudes when yielding.

In Figs. 7 8, 9, 10 and 11 I have shown a modification by which the samepurpose may be obtained as by the modification just described. Insteadof pivot-ing a shield 12 in the manner described above, I have providedlugs 16 on the upperside of bar 65. one on either side, in which ashield 17 of the form shown in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 is pivoted. This shieldruns transversely to recess 38 in the same manner as shield 12 describedbefore, and is also adapted to normally yield when an eye is plled bythe hook from its seat 11. On this shield is provided a portion 18 whichencircles bar 65 on the under side. The shape ofshield 17 is moreclearly shown in perspective view in Fig. 10. At the lower end of theshield is provided a loop 19, also extending rearward similarly toportion 18 of the shield and having its main portion running in par--allel to the shield and disposed in a slot 20, running transverse to bar'65 (Fig. 7), which slot is of sufficient width to allow of the rockingof shield 17 in its pivots when the eye is pulled from its seat by thehook. To the portion 18 of the shield extension, running in parallel tothe shield, is connected a spring 21 fastened at the other end to bar 65in order to keep shield 17 yieldingly resting over the eye seat.l/Vithin the lower end of bar 65 is further pivoted a latch 22 (a detailperspective view of which is shown in Fig. 11) so that its upwardextending hook 23 is adapted to engage loop 19 when the latch is throwninto the position shown in Fig. 7. The leaf-spring 24 fastened to theunder side of bar 65 holds latch 22 normally in non-engaging position,so that shield 17 is normally free to rock when the eye is pulled fromits seat. If now a hook is about to be brought into engagement with aneye by the gripper in the manner above referred to, the upper side ofthe hook bill will strike latch 22 and throw it upward into the positionshown in Fig. 7, thereby causing its hook 23 to engage loop 19 and tothus lock shield 17 over the eye, which has been delivered in themeantime to its seat in the manner described above. The hook 8 thusholding with its bill latch 22 in engaging position will on fart-herforward movement pull its hump past the eye with out pulling the eyefrom its seat. The proportion and the location of latch 22 relatively tothe size and the path of hook 8 are chosen so that when hump 9 has justpassed the eye, the end of latch 22 resting upon the hook bill, willslide down the back of the hook and thus unlock shield 17 so that whenthe hook tends to pull the eye from its seat shield 17 will yield andlet go the eye, which is now properly engaged by the hook as desired andready to be carried to the cards as described in the patent abovereferred to. It will thus be seen that in this modification the hookitself forms the controlling element for the eye locking device, sincethe shield will remain locked so long as the hook is in the position inwhich it tends to pull its hump past the eye.

Vhile I have described in the specification and shown in the drawingstwo particular forms of the device by which I obtain my purpose as anexample and adapted to fit a particular form of eye feeding device, I donot wish to limit myself to these particular forms, since other formswhich may vary according to the form and features of the eye feed may beemployed to the same advantage without departing from the spirit of myinvention.

What I claim is:

1. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes into engaging position, and means for singlyfeeding hooks to engage said eyes; of means for positively holding aneye in engaging position while engaged by a hook and releasing the holdon said eye only after it has been fully engaged.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feed ing eyes into engaging position, and means for singlyfeeding hooks to engage said eyes; of automatic means for positivelyholding an eye in said engaging position while engaged by a hook andreleasing the hold on said eye only after ithas been fully engaged.

3. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes into engaging position, andmeans for singlyfeeding hooks to engage said eyes; of means controlled by said eyefeeding means for positively holding an eye in said engaging posit-ionwhile engaged by a hook and releasing the hold on said eye only after ithas been fully engaged.

4. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes comprising a supporting bar having a recessadapted to hold an eye, means for feeding eyes to said recess, a pusherin said recess adapted to push a single eye fed into said recess to theend of said bar into engaging position, means for operating said pusher,and means for singly feeding hooks to engage an eye fed into saidposition; of a shield suitably disposed on and pivoted to said bar tonormally allow an eye to be pushed into and drawn by a hook from saidengaging position and adapted to positively hold said eye in engagingshield disposed to be locked in said eye holding position during thehook and eye engaging operation.

5. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes comprising a supporting bar having a recessadapted to hold an eye, means for feeding eyes to said recess, a pusherin said recess adapted'to push a single eye fed into said recess to theend of said bar into engaging position, means for operating said pusher,and means for singly feeding hooks to engage an eye fed into saidposition; of a shield suitably disposed on and pivoted to said bar tonormally allow an eye to be position, said 1 pushed into and drawn by ahook from said engaging position and adapted to positively hold said eyein said position, said shield disposed to be automatically locked insaid eye holding position during the hook and eye engaging operation.

6. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes into engaging position and means for singlyfeeding hooks to engage said eyes; of means controlled by the hook whenin eye engaging position for positively holding an eye in said positionwhile engaged by said hook and releasing the hold on said eye only afterit has been fully engaged.

7 In a device of the character described, the combination with means forsingly feeding eyes comprising a supporting bar having a recess adaptedto hold an eye, means for feeding eyes to said recess, a pusher in saidrecess adapted to push a single eye fed into said recess to the end ofsaid bar into engaging position, means for operating said pusher, andmeans for singly feeding hooks to en age an eye fed into said position;of a shield suitably disposed on and pivoted to said bar to normallyallow an eye to be pushed into and thrown by a hook from said engagingposition and adapted to positively hold said eye in said position, saidshield disposed to be locked in said eye holding position by the hookduring the engaging operation with said eye.

8. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feed ing eyes comprising a supporting bar having a recessadapted-to hold an eye, means for feeding eyes to said recess, a pusherin said recess adapted to push a single eye fed into said recess to theend of said bar into engaging position, means for operating said pusher,and means for singly feeding hooks to engage an eye fed into saidposition; of a shield suitably disposed on and pivoted to said bar tonormally allow an eye to be pushed into and drawn by a hook from saidengaging position and adapted to positively hold said eye in saidposition, and means adapted to cooperate with and to be controlled bysaid hook when in eye engaging position for locking said shield in saideye holding position.

9. I11 a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes comprising a supporting bar hav ing a recessadapted to hold an eye, means for feeding eyes to said recess, a pusherin said recess adapted to push a single eye fed into said recess to theend of said bar into engaging position, means for operating said pusher,and means for singly feeding hooks to engage an eye fed into saidposition; of a shield suitably shaped and pivoted to said bar tonormally yieldingly cover said recess near the end of said bar to'allowan eye fed by said pusher to slide to the end of said recess underneathsaid shield and to be pulled by a hook from said recess, and meansadapted to cooperate with and to be controlled by said hook when in eyeengaging position for locking said shield in said eye holding position.

10. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes comprising a supporting bar having a recessadapted to hold an eye, means for feeding eyes to said recess, a pusherin said recess adapted to push a single eye fed into said recess to theend of said'bar into engaging position, means for operating said pusher,and means for singly feeding hooks to engage an eye fed into saidposition; of a shield suitably shaped and pivoted to said bar tonormally yieldingly cover said recess near the end of said bar to allowan eye fed by said pusher to slide to the end of said recess underneathsaid shield and to be pulled by a hook from said recess, a loop suitablyfastened to said shield, a latch pivoted to said bar adapted to engagesaid loop and lock said shield over said eye, said latch disposed in thepath of said hook to normally remain in loop disengaging position, saidhook when moving into eye engaging position causing said latch to engagesaid loop and when moving out of eye engaging position causing saidlatch to disengage 1ts 11. In a device of the character described, thecombination with means for singly feeding eyes into engaging positionand means for singly feeding hooks to engage said eyes; of meanscontrolled by the hook while in transit for positively holding an eye insaid position while engaged by said hook and releasing the hold on saideye only after it has been fully engaged.

12. In a device of the character described, the combination with meansfor singly feeding eyes into engaging position and means for singlyfeeding hooks to engage said eyes; of automatic means controlled by thehook while in transit for positively holding an eye in said engagingposition While engaged by a hook and releasing the hold on said eye onlyafter it has been fully engaged.

WILLIAM A. COU'RTLAND.

WVitnesses:

H. ALFRED JAUKE, WM. E. KNIGHT.

